Avo Titan Mobile

[TonyMitchell]

Noise boy asking Lampie questions, so please forgive my ignorance and the elementary nature of this post...

 

The fixtures we have are 1 x Betapack 3 (6 DMX channels), 4 x Mac250Krypton profiles, 8 x RGB LED fixtures, 2 x Pulsar Demon Strobes and 1 x Magnum 2000 smoke.

 

The desk is a Titan Mobile with a dedicated PC, wireless mouse, no touch screen.

 

Previous LX experience is limited to running generics off Betapacks and old Pulsar desks.

 

I need to program the TM for a run of corporate events, to make the lighting as interesting as possible using the fixtures available - for room ambience during early evening & mealtime (slow LED crossfades, very slow Mac action using prism, etc) and faster scenes & chases for when the band/dj is playing later.

 

Having got the fixtures patched, visualiser configured, I started to record some playbacks.

 

Whilst there are 60 pages and 10 faders, I am struggling as to how best to lay out the playbacks. I started with page one as LED chases, page two as Mac250 chases, page three as generics. However, this isn't working for me, as if I raise a fader on page one to fire an LED cue, then go to page two to fire a Mac250 cue, if this is on the same fader (albeit a different page), the LED cue stops. I then rethought this and have page one for "slow effects" and oage two for "faster effects", but keep thinking I'm missing something quite basic here.

 

Of course this wouldn't be a problem if I was building a theatre stack, where for 99% of the time the only button being pressed during the show is "Next". But the idea is to set this up so the operator will be able to run cues on the LED fixtures, or the Macs, without conflict. Also, would like the Strobes and Smoke to always be on faders & 9 and 10, irrespective of what playback page is current.

 

Any tips would be welcome.

[mark_s]

There are a few ways to approach the problem. Some duplication of important 'common bits' with a different variety of 'extras' on each page might be a good starting point. One method which works particularly well on some other desks is stacking things 'vertically' - where you might have a cue stack of LED states, a cue stack of P/T effects, a cue stack of dimmer effects, etc, and then move between them using the playback go button. Using this method you can fit far more onto a single page and make busking far more manageable. I've never had reason to use this on a Pearl though, and the cue stack feature is rather clunky.

 

To be honest, on a Pearl in this scenario, I'd be creating a few interesting states on playbacks along with a few interesting and flexible shapes, and busk it from there by making full use of palettes and mixing/matching what I have on playbacks. Less is more. Of course, on a Titan Mobile with less to 'grab' and with no touchscreen, you might find operating like this tricky.

 

On a side note, the one great advantage of the Expert is the split Rolacue in my opinion, where you get two separate Rolacues (effectively two separate sets of playback pages) - it makes playback layout much more simple.

[timsabre]

A cue stack for each type of fixture is probably the best way. Then your operator can independently select an led state, a dimmer state and a mover state using the go buttons above the playback faders. Add a couple more faders with different shapes on as mark suggests for busking variety.

 

You can set a lock on faders 9 and 10 so they appear on all pages, without having to copy them. See playback options.

[niclights]

Something else to consider might be to make use of some masters. For example you can define one or more speed masters and use them to adjust the speed of any playbacks that you assign, including any shapes or effects (via playback options). If you wanted to you save playback faders you could assign a bpm master to one of the executor buttons as a tap tempo.

 

Group masters could be used to filter out fixtures.

 

Also don't forget you can automate firing of playback(s) within cuelists (see autoload). In particular this can provide solutions to running chases within cuelists. Again, making use of masters to control the speed of any autoloaded playbacks can be very useful. Note that speed control in these cases is defined in the playback being loaded, rather than the cuelist.

 

Finally, things like strobes and smoke could easily go on the executors.

[TonyMitchell]

Guys - thank you for the suggestions so far.

 

I have set up a simple LED cue list on fader 1. As suggested, I will put all LED cues on this fader, Macs on another, etc., the aim being to avoid moving away from Page 1 during playback of the show.

 

Something else to consider might be to make use of some masters. For example you can define one or more speed masters and use them to adjust the speed of any playbacks that you assign, including any shapes or effects (via playback options).

 

I have set the Speed Source for handle 1 to 'BPM1' but am struggling in assigning the speed master to a fader (I was going to put this on fader 2) Page 170 of the v.7.0 manual states you select [Assign Mastering] in system mode. Pressing the Shift-Avo key and going through the sub menus, I cannot find [Assign Mastering], the only reference to Masters I can find is in Key profiles, to configure the function of the grey/blue/etc keys and an option stating that Grand Master is currently disabled.

 

If you wanted to you save playback faders you could assign a bpm master to one of the executor buttons as a tap tempo.

This will be useful, Nic. Would you explain how I do this, as I can't find it in the manual?

[niclights]

There are two ways to assign masters. Either via the system menu as you say where the softkey is [Assign Masters] (you might need to use [Prev] or [Next] to find it as there are more than one page of options) or by pressing the Record button followed by [Master]. From here you can then select the master type, ie. [bPM], and then which one (for example [bPM 1]). Finally choose your destination handle. This can be a playback fader, an executor or a handle in the playbacks or macros workspace.

 

The default key profiles for masters are as follows:

 

Blue = Tap, Grey = Flash, Touch = Select

 

The executor keys are treated as touch. Therefore to get a tap tempo on an executor button we need a new profile. Quickest way to do this:

 

- Avo+[Edit Current Key Profile]

- Give it a name or just use the prompted [Add User 1]

- Press the executor button where you assigned the master

- Select [Tap Tempo] (use [Next] or [Prev] softkeys to find if you can't see it)

 

That's it.

 

By using [Edit Current Key Profile] method we automatically selected this new profile. This means that all your touch keys for masters are now tap tempo. If you only want the tap function for that specific handle then you can assign it via [Playback Options]/[Key Profile]. This then becomes a permanent assignment and overrides the global profile selected (shift+[select Key Profile]).

 

Note there are also some master specific playback options. In the case of a bpm master this is [scale] and refers to the range of adjustment by fader. It has no relevance for a non-fader handle such as the executors. Also note that you can enter speeds numerically by typing the speed on the keypad and then selecting a bpm master.

 

Finally, executors 11-17 have some workspace shortcuts stored by default as per the laminate. However, you can remove these and use them for other things should you wish. To delete them first enter the view menu by pressing Open Window (View on some other consoles) then Delete followed by executor twice (or once + [confirm]).

[TonyMitchell]

Thank you Nic, very helpful - I've made good progress today.

 

With the BPM masters, is the range fixed (0-360BPM) or is the upper parameter editable, giving more precision on the fader?

 

Also, for some reason, I cannot now select Groups by clicking the touch button, but can select them using the softkeys. This has only occurred this afternoon, so I'm guessing I must have changed something I shouldn't have in Key profile. Any ideas?

[niclights]

You can adjust the BPM fader range by toggling through [Playback Options]/[scale]. The scale relates to rate masters which are a proportional control. When using BPM it ought to tell you the BPM range instead but currently it doesn't. Tapped or numeric BPM's can go outside this range.

 

I would imagine the reason you can't select groups now is because they are also masters and you currently have a global key profile where the touch for masters is set to tap tempo. Use Avo+[select Key Profile] to get back to something normal (ie. [Program]) and then manually set your speed master to the tap tempo profile via [Playback Options]/[Key Profile].